“The city has no leadership yet, so there is absolutely no one to deal with”

The reconstruction project already exists and, according to the original calculations, the work was supposed to cost 1.1 billion crowns, of which half a billion was to be provided by the municipality and about 260 million crowns to be covered by subsidies from the Ministry of the Environment. However, due to the increase in prices in the construction industry, the price will be higher, and according to the first deputy mayor Tomáš Pek (TOP 09), it will be necessary to negotiate with the municipality to increase loans.

“The city has no leadership yet, so there’s absolutely no one to deal with,” said the deputy mayor Well done. Negotiations will thus be possible to begin after the election of the new leadership of the metropolis, which has not been able to come to an agreement since the elections, and it is not yet clear when a new coalition will be formed. “If we didn’t come to an agreement, we would have to leave for some rental and think about how to sell the object or evaluate it in another way,” Pek added.

In any case, according to him, the plan to move the office and hundreds of its employees to rented premises in the first half of next year is valid. Due to safety and violation of standards, it is not possible to stay in the current town hall complex in Vršovická Street, he said. On the basis of a competition, the Town Hall has chosen the premises of the commercial and administrative building Vinice, which is located on Vinohradská Street in Strašnice.

Ten also deal with school capacity and assistance to residents

In Prague 10, the coalition Together for Prague 10 (ODS and TOP 09) and the coalition Vlasta, STAN and KDU-ČSL have been in power since the beginning of November. According to Mayor Martin Valovič (ODS), in addition to issues of the town hall, the new management will also deal with, for example, building new school capacities or helping residents affected by inflation. “It will be aimed at families with children, seniors, and entrepreneurs,” he communicated Valovich.

As far as school capacity is concerned, the town hall has already started the reconstruction of the unused school near the Strašnická metro station, where about 360 new places should be created. In addition, according to deputy mayor Olga Koumarová (ODS), the district plans to expand the Hostýnská Elementary School in Strašnice by 810 places and the Břečťanová Elementary School in Zahradní Město by 540 places. Further expansion of Eden and U Roháčových barracks elementary schools is planned.

Past managements of Prague 10 considered various options for solving the situation with the inadequate municipal office. First, there was a plan to build a new town hall at an estimated cost of 775 million crowns, but it was abandoned after criticism. After that, the office was considered to be moved to an unused school in Kraków, in the end the previous management decided to reconstruct the existing town hall. The company that prepared the reconstruction project was selected by the town hall in a competition at the end of 2019.